Turin, Italy | April 2025
Daianne Moreno-Mempin, Founder and Creative Director of Katha Pilipinas, represented the Philippines at the Culture and Creative Economy Foresight Programme held in Turin, Italy from 23 to 25 April 2025. The programme took place alongside the release cycle of the Creative Economy Outlook 2025 and convened policymakers, researchers, and creative economy practitioners from across the world.
Daianne was the only Filipino and the only Southeast Asian participant from the private sector invited to take part in the programme. Her participation marked an important moment of representation for community-rooted creative enterprises operating outside traditional institutional and government frameworks.
Supported by the British Council, UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and the International Training Centre of the ILO (ITC-ILO), the foresight programme created space for long-range conversations on how culture and creativity intersect with trade, labour, technology, and development. The sessions encouraged participants to step beyond present-day constraints and consider how creative ecosystems might evolve over the coming decades.
Across the programme, participants reflected on key themes shaping the future of the creative economy. These included the recognition of creative work as labour, the conditions required for decent work, and the growing importance of reskilling and lifelong learning. Conversations also touched on emerging technologies and their implications for authorship, ownership, and agency, as well as the role of trade and investment in enabling fairer access to markets.
Gender equality, diversity, and inclusion featured as cross-cutting considerations, alongside discussions on heritage, performance, design, and content as living and interconnected sectors rather than isolated disciplines. While the programme focused on foresight rather than policy commitments, it highlighted the need for systems thinking and collaborative approaches that centre people, communities, and cultural value.
Daianne’s participation reflects Katha Pilipinas’ ongoing engagement in global conversations while remaining grounded in local practice. The organisation’s work continues to bridge grassroots creative communities with international platforms, ensuring that perspectives from the Global South are present in shaping future creative economies.
As global institutions look ahead, the presence of practitioner-leaders from community-based and practice-led organisations signals a growing recognition that the future of creative economies must be built not only through policy and data, but through lived experience, care, and long-term collaboration.